Grenade



L. H. CGOK Aug. 21 i, 195i GRENADE Filed May 19, 1945 m m w m Lawns/m5/7. COOK BY 4 722mm wag HTTO/P/VE VS atented Aug. 21, i5i

UNITED STATES PATENT. FFiCE GRENADE- I Lawrence H. Cook, Menlo ParlgCali f. Application May 19, 1945, Serial No. 594,706 4 This inventionrelates to agrenade and has for one of its objects a method of formingthe walls of a grenade with preformed members or projectiles so that thelatter will be held in properly spaced relationship in said walls duringmolding or casting of the latter.

Another object of the invention is'the provision of an improved grenadethat is relatively light in weight as compared with conventionalgrenades of similar size, and which grenade is more effective thanconventional grenades within the same range.

Conventional grenades of the offensive type generally have a molded bodyor shell of iron or steel that contains the explosive material. They maybe of the percussion type or fuse type as desired. The shell is usuallyformed with crossing grooves to form lines of weakness along which linesthe walls are supposed to break whereby the material between such lineswill form fragments that are the intended projectiles. These grenadesare too heavy to be easily thrown with any degree of accuracy exceptafter considerable practice and even then a full arm swing must be usedwhich undesirably restricts the accuracy and range.

Furthermore, conventional hand grenades are relatively small and theirefiectiveness depends greatly upon whether or not the walls 01 theshellwill actually break up into the intended number of fragments. Thusbreakage is not uniform and the fragments that do result from breakageare of shapes that offer practically the maximum resistance to the air,thus very rapidly falling off in velocity after explosion of thegrenade.

With the present invention the walls of the grenade carry preformeduniform sized projectiles that are not bonded with the material of thewalls, but that are free to separate from the walls upon breakage of thelatter, and said projectiles are preferably spherical so as to ofierlittle resistance to the flight through the air. The walls are ofrelatively light material as compared with iron or steel, therefore thegrenade may be made much lighter than heretofore without reducing theefiectiveness. In fact its efiectiveness is increased over the conventional grenades.

The making of a grenade of the type herein disclosed and as aboveexplained presents problems, the solution of which is believed toconstitute invention. For example, a practical method of holding thewalls or projectiles in uniform spaced relation, or in any predetermined2 Claims. (01. '2 s4) spaced. relation, and so as to be imbedded equallydeep or equally shallow within the cast or molded shellof the. grenadeis accomplished by this invention, and has heretofore been attempted,but with little success if anyinsofar as I am aware.

. Other objects and advantages will appear in the description and in thedrawings. 1

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is an enlarged sectional view through a grenade of thisinvention.

Fig. 2 is a reduced size elevational view showing the means for holdingthe projectiles properly positioned during casting.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view showing a pair of flat screenswith the projectiles between them preparatory. to casting metal aboutthe projectiles or preparatory to forming the screens in some shapeother than fiat.

It will be seen in Fig. 2 that a circular opening 8 is preferably leftin one side of the assembled screens, which opening permits passage ofthe desired detonating mechanism or fuse, etc. into the area enclosed bythe inner screens.

Another possible procedure is the forming of opposed recesses I0 in fiatscreens 1 I, i2 (Fig. 3) for sealing opposite sides of balls i3 therein.These screens may be held in contact with the balls l3 by rivets l4 orby spacers spot welded at their ends to the screens or in any otherdesired manner. After the flat sheets in the form of a sandwich with theballs l4 therebetween are formed they may be bent to the desiredsemispherical contour or to whatever shape is desired. The balls willnot become dislodged due to the recesses in which they are seated.

If a spherical grenade is desired as shown in Fig. 1, the spherical cagelike that of Fig. 2 may be spacedly supported within an outer sphericalmold form by conventional chaplets and the sand core for the grenade maybe similarly supported within the cage. This is conventional moldingpractice and is not shown.

The molten or moldable material I5 that is to form the walls of thegrenade is then flowed into the mold, flowing through the mesh openingsin the screens to fill the spaces between the screens and balls, andalso the spaces between the screens on the mold forms. If desirable,portions of the balls may project from the outer sides of the finishedgrenade so that its outer sides are knobby or roughened therebyfacilitating grasping the grenades by the fingers for throwing. In suchinstances the outsides of the grenades may resemble the illustration ofFig. 2. Any desired 3 pattern may be formed in the outer surface of thegrenade, the pattern corresponding with the inside contour of the outermold form.

The material 15 is preferably a light metal, such as magnesium, and thesize of the grenade may be about that of a baseball. In as much as thespecific gravity of magnesium is only about 1.74 as compared with about7.85 which is that of iron or steel, and as the explosive l6 within thegrenade may be only a few ounces, it is seen that the weight of thegrenade having three or four score of projectiles or steel ballsthereon, each of destructive size, can be provided that can be thrownlike a baseball and with substantially the same range and accuracy. Evenplastic material could be used for the walls of the grenade, althoughthe possible destructive results of fragments of the magnesium or othermetal would appear to make the metal preferable.

In casting the walls, an opening I! concentric with opening 8, isprovided thereon, which opening; may be threaded to receive anyconventional detonating mechanism generally designated [8. For safetyreasons these'are preferably of the fuse type instead of the percussiontype, but as this invention is not concerned with the type, used themechanism is merel illustrated in semi-diagrammatic form.

It is to be understood that the. illustration and description are notintended to be restrictive of the invention, but are merely illustrativeof preferred forms thereof.

I; claim:

1. A grenade having molded walls containing metal members thereinsubstantially uniformly spaced apart, the material of said walls being,of substantially lower specific gravity than the material of saidmembers and of a lower melting 4 point than that of said members, saidmembers being spherical steel balls, and concentric generally sphericalspaced screens in said walls formed with opposedly opening pairs ofopposite partially spherical recesses within which opposite sides ofsaid balls are seated spacing said screens apart with the said screensholding said balls against shifting relation to each other.

2. A grenade having molded walls of magnesium containing steelprojectiles held therein by said magnesium and concentric, spaced,hollow elements formed from screening between which said projectiles areheld in spaced relation against shifting during the molding of saidwalls.

LAWRENCE H. COOK.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,027,673 Smith May 28, 19121,174,073 Joyce Mar. 7, 1916 1,184,137 Sargent May 23, 1916 1,277,311Hansen Aug. 27, 1918 1,601,378 Slade 11, Sept. 28, 1926 1,895,533 BagleyJan. 21, 1933 1,955,156 Udale Apr. 17, 1934 2,109,479 Gibbons Mar. 1,1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 4,297 Great Britain of 18934,928 Great, Britain Sept. 30, 1915 491,085 France -1 Jan. 22, 1919134,948

Great Britain Nov. 17, 1919

